The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-11-28

dealing with this question. If you do, there is
no reason Why we should part to-day There IS
good work that we can do together Applause.l
Inc Republican party in the House OF REPRE-
sentatives. so far it could, kept the pledge or
the platform. lApplause.l II you had helped
us. my prohibition friends, to make the Senate
Repu bhcan, that law would have been ON the
statue book to-day Applause l believe 1t Is
true and can be demonstrated to be true that
is you had thrown your votes with Us in the last
cam paign such a result could have been accom-
plished- Is il not worth while to work togetherl
l believe that much depends upon the wise and
thoughtful reconsideration of all these questions
by the temperance people of Indiana. and II
they shall wisely think them and wisely
give their vote and influence to the party that
has started boldly in the direction of temperance
reform. we shall certainly carry Indiana next
year [great applausel and greatly advance the
good cause or temperance reform.
THR PENSION QUESTION.
Some national questions of interest turn upon
the coming election. Soldiers believe that
be exalted above the fame of those who fought
against the flag, whether the rewards of your
services shall be just and liberal and the care OF
your disabled comrades ungrudging and ample,
depends upon the election of Re-
publican President in 1888 Great
applause For the first time in the history
of the American Nation we have had President
who. in dealing with the veto power, has used it
not only to deny relief but to lmpeach the repu
tations of the men who made it possible for him
to be President of the United States. APP
plause. The veto messages of MIR. Cleveland
sent in during the last Congress were. many OF
them, tipped with poisoned arrows. He vetoed
what is called the dependent pension bill. What
is the principle of it9 I believe that the first bill
introduced in Congress embodying the principle
of that bill introduced by me. Great ap-
plause and loud cheering. 1t was prepared in
view of the fact that Congress was being over
whelmed with private pension bills for men now
disabled and unable to maintain themselves
who could not, by proof, connect their
disability with their army service. / said
let make the limitations of the pension
law wider. and instead of taking in these men
one at time, let Us take the whole class in at
once, and hence this bill. Some men sneered
at it; said was simply trying buncombe game
with the soldiers. But. gentlemen. the general
principles of that bill have come TO stay. It
has, with slight notifications received now the
vote, almost unanimous. of the Grand Army of
the Republic. That will be laid before Congress
at it's approaching session. What is the prin-
ciple of It'll Why, it is something like the old
rule we had in the army: as long man was
able, he marched and carried his own gun and
knapsack. but when he. got hurt sick, and
fell out, had ambulance to put him in;
and that ia the princip le embodied in this bi
that we, the survivors Of the late war, as long
as God gives Us strength and health. will march
in this column of civil life, making our own
living. and carrying our own burden; but here
is comrade falling by the way. sickness, cas-
ualty-not his own falkland he has to fall out;
want the great national ambulance to
take him up. [Great applause That was the
idea of this bill. Is it not iusta Why, my
countrymen, somebody must care for these vet
sabre stroke. but cannot now trace their mfr
mites to their army service by any satisfactory
proof. They have fought manfully since. They
dependent on their work for living and
they cannot work. Somebody must take care
of them; the expense cannot be avoided unless
you kick the old veterans out and let them die
on the roadside. Somebody must carefor them,
and the simple question is. shall they be cared
for as paupers in the county poor houses, or
shall the great Nation they served and saved
care for them as soldiers7 Enthusiastic ap-
MA I Ia |
tain that mans memory of the fact that he was
a soldier; l want the generations coming on to
know that it is safe to abandon civil pursuits.
throw wealth behind you and yourself into the
bloody conflict for the Nations life: [applausel
that republics grateful, and that its soldiers
shall be taken care of.
Oh, they say we are so greedy. Why, gentle
men, this was not greedy army that went out
to maintain tho supremacy of the law, and the
Constitution. and the glory of the flag! They
were not mercenary; Dot bit OF It. Inc men
who were mercenary staid at home There was
the place to make money. l shall never forget
that transcendent day when Sherman's army.
that had entered the Confederacy at the gate of
Louisville and marked its bloody pathway by
Vieksburg, ana Chattanooga, and Missionary
Ridge. and Atlanta, and Bentonvilie. and
Raleigh, to the national capital, marched in
parade up that magnificent avenue; il was lined
on either hand with q great mass OF men and
women that had come 10 look upon those boys
was proud day. There was not a soldier that
marched that street that glad bright morning
who was not paid over and over again for Ill his
toll and suffering. by the glad
claim that welcomed him. The left
of the column was in the shadow
of those magnificent columns that support the
porticos of the national Treasury, and yet in all
that moving mass there was not one hungry eye
turned towards the Golfers of the Repnbiic, not
one If we had been hungry for gold. do not
know any power in the universe that could have
preven. ted us that day from ing those vaults
into our pockets. Not These men .
were not thinking of monev. Their hearts ran
forward faster than the quick time of their
march to the homes here in Hendricks county,
and throughout these northern States. where
loved ones waited to welcome them. For, thank
God, it was the glory and strength of our
American army that not a soldier in it who did
not have soma humble place that he called
home; who did not have chair by some fire.
side waiting for him. and some arms of love to en-
brace him when he came. That is what saved the
country. That is what made 1t possible 20 dis
band such great army without any disturb
ance in any part of the land.
We are in favor of the reduction OF the rev.
enue. but of Its being done that some other
things may not be made impossible. One have
just mentioned. The truth is, there are lot OF
Democrats from the South and some not from
the South. who are especially anxious to reduce
the revenue, because if they get our treas
ury empty and little behind in its accounts,
they can say to the soldiers. we cannot give you
these pensions; there is no money. One of the
things want TO save in making tho needed
reductions is fair. just, liberal pension Law.
There is another thing We want done We
Tense, that it will not longer be possible for
some third rate power of South America to run
iron ram in and put the cities under contri-
button. For the brutal treatment that was
melted out to US by England when hands
were full by reason OF the great civil conflict we
have accepted recompense in money, but no
nation must repeat that experiment with our
patience. [Appausel We must also have
enough revenues to put on the sea a navy worthy
of this great Nation and capable of maintaining
our old-time prestige on the We will no
longer have our shame faced naval
officers creeping into foreign ports In
wooden hunks, the laughing stock
Of all who them. Republicans have been
trying to do this for good while. but while the
Democrats had control of the House of Repre-
sentatives they refused to make the necessary
appropriations because they said they could not
trust Republican Secretary to spend them
Well, when they got a Secretary of their own in
the Republicans were more magnanlmous. We
said he is not q whit better man a whit honest
err man than our man was. but American
citizens. and if this mean party spirit is to dom
in te( Con cress and you when in mower will